


Retroactive

by amixii10



Series: August Miraculous AUs [21]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: (mentioned) - Freeform, AU Yeah AUgust (Miraculous Ladybug), Age Regression/De-Aging, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Childhood Friends, Domestic Fluff, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Growing Up, Lesbian Chloé Bourgeois, Miraculous Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:15:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26271745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amixii10/pseuds/amixii10
Summary: "Don't worry, she'll be back to normal soon. She'll age up twice a day... so you'll have to take care of her for eight days."Chloe internally screams.
Relationships: Chloé Bourgeois/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Series: August Miraculous AUs [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860127
Comments: 19
Kudos: 150





	Retroactive

**Author's Note:**

> In an experiment with Master Fu, something goes wrong, and Marinette is now a five-year-old.

“Chloe!” Marinette squeals as she rushes towards her friend. Chloe turns around and catches an armful of hyperactive six-year-old.   
She had been walking down to her law firm when she was barreled down by the child. How that happened, neither of them had a clue. 

The truth was, Master Fu had been experimenting on Marinette and Tikki to upgrade her transformation, and a newly child-Marinette didn’t recognize him. So naturally, she sprinted to the streets in search of someone she knew. 

Chloe lifts Marinette hesitantly, and the little girl hugs her tight. Chloe was 25, yet she was the same to Marinette. Her blonde hair was the same as before, and her face was similar. 

“Missed you, Chlo,’” she says as she nuzzles her cheek. 

Chloe feels her heart breaking in two- if Marinette was how old she thought she was, then that meant… 

That meant that Chloe and Marinette had been separated by their parents. It had been ‘unacceptable’ for the daughter of the mayor and a fashion designer to be playing with the daughter of a ‘peasant’, as her mother taught her. 

Chloe felt sick to her stomach. 

Instead of voicing her thoughts, she hugs the little girl. “Do you know who made you little?” 

She texts her boss to let her know that she wouldn’t be coming in. Marinette pulls away. 

“It was a wrinkly old man who said that he needed to test on me,” she responds with a pout. She points in the direction from where she had come from. 

Chloe carries her half-way, then drops Marinette. 

“Why was I carrying you? You’re a big girl!” she chastises. Chloe had forgotten how much of a trickster Marinette had been when she was younger. 

Chloe, however, had been turning into the spoiled brat she had been in her lycee years. 

Marinette just looks back up at her with a perfectly innocent smile. 

Chloe sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. “Come on, lil Mari, take me where you ran from.” 

After maneuvering through throngs of people, they stand in front of Master Fu’s house. 

“Hello, Chloe and Marinette,” he welcomes them after opening the door. Marinette goes inside tentatively, holding Chloe’s hand all the while. 

Marinette goes to the bathroom, so Chloe sits down to talk to Master Fu. 

“Chloe, it is good to see you. I’m sure you must be wondering why Marinette has decreased in age… you see, we were experimenting to see if Tikki could take Marinette back a few minutes in time, similarly to Sass, but as you see, something went wrong.”

Chloe drinks her tea to calm herself. She doesn’t acknowledge the scalding temperature. 

“So when will she be the correct age again?” 

“Well, I would guess approximately a week…” 

*

“Do you have apple juice?” 

“No.” 

“So… do you have orange juice?”

“No.”

“What about-” 

“There is no juice in this house!” Chloe erupts at the little girl. 

Marinette is unfazed. 

“Well, technically, this is an apartment.” 

“Ugh, ” Chloe mumbles before going back into her work. “Go find a pack of fruit gummies or something.” 

*

Marinette as a seven-year-old was a little bastard. 

“Chloe, Chlo-Chlo, can I show you how to do a roundhouse kick? My cousin taught me.” 

Chloe remembers how this exchange had gone the first time. Spoiler Alert: not well. 

“Sure, show me.” 

Marinette comes too close and kicks her squarely in the nose. 

At least she apologizes.

*

“Um, Miss Bourgeois? There’s a little girl outside, waiting for you.” 

Chloe resists the urge to cuss the tiny demon child out, but just barely. Why did it have to be her, again? 

(“... because you know of Marinette’s identity, and seeing as Alya and Nino have children of their own, and Adrien is in Italy, you are the only one who can be trusted with Marinette.” 

Chloe had to leave to let out her childish frustrations.) 

“Uh, Miss? Are you alright?” She hears the assistant ask again. She nods, her lips pressed thin, and leaves to go see what the child has come for. 

“Yes, Marinette? What do you want?” 

“Uh, well, you see,” she begins. Chloe checks her watch. 

“I may or may not have accidentally lost your cat,” Marinette says in a rushed whisper. 

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. In. Out. In. Ou- 

“Chloe?” 

“Okay. This is fine. Let me just finish my work for today, then we can go back home to see if we can find him.” 

Marinette’s shoulders relax, and a slow grin spreads upon her face. 

“You can wait in the main lobby,” Chloe informs her before walking away. Nine-year-olds were so much work.

*

“I hate you,” Marinette tells her the next day as they eat breakfast. 

Chloe sighs. “Let me guess, we’ve just started to do that thing, right?” 

Master Fu had told her that Marinette would get her memories based on her age. For example, right now she was getting her memories from the first year of lycee. 

That was when Chloe had decided that Marinette would be her victim in a game of cat and mouse. 

“Why should I tell you? What’ve you ever done for me?” 

Chloe bites down a retort. It hurts her pride, but she can’t say something that would make Marinette trust her even less. 

“I’m sorry, Marinette. I’ve apologized before for what I’ve done, but I’ll apologize a hundred times if it means you forgiving me.” 

Marinette pushes her food away and stalks off to her place in the guest bedroom. Chloe sighs again and takes the bowls to the sink. Hopefully, Marinette wouldn’t react too severely tomorrow.

* 

“Honestly, fuck you! Why were you so mean to me? What did you gain from that?” 

“I’m sorry, Mari, I’m so sorry,” Chloe tries, but Marinette grabs her hand and looks at her like she murdered her cat. 

“You don’t get to call me that,” Marinette hisses at her. 

“Fine. I’m heading to a dinner party with my coworkers, feel free to sulk here for the rest of the night,” Chloe says with a carefully clear voice. 

“Fine. Then go, and don’t bother coming back.” 

The door shuts, and the neighbors can hear the torn sobs of a thirteen-year-old. 

*

Chloe comes into Marinette’s room. She’s still asleep, and she aged through the night. The bags under her eyes are more prominent than ever. 

“Marinette?” Chloe asks hesitantly, making her way across the room. She taps the sleeping teenager, and she startles awake. 

“I swear- I swear I finished it, Mr. Agreste! I finished it in time,” she rushes to say, and upon realizing it’s just Chloe, she relaxes. 

“You can still sleep, I’m just going out to grab us some groceries, alright?” Chloe responds slowly. 

“No! I can’t sleep, Mr. Agreste needs me to finish the designs for fashion week.” 

“Marinette, you can sleep. Gabriel doesn’t need you to finish anything, he’s-” Chloe stops herself before she can mess with Marinette’s mind more. “Never mind. Just try to get some sleep, alright?” 

“Okay,” Marinette responds after a minute. Chloe leaves, although uncertainly. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to- oh,” she says upon seeing her already asleep again. 

A slow smile stretches across her face.

*

“Damn, how did I think that I was straight for seventeen years of my life?” Marinette mutters as she flips through a magazine.

Chloe laughs suddenly as she minces the onions. Marinette looks up and colors abruptly. She coughs into her fist and looks away.

“No, no, I’m not judging you but damn, that was funnier than it should be. I can relate- I mean, I didn’t realize I was gay until I turned like, 20.”

“Oh, really? Cool,” she says, still red. 

Chloe snickers to herself. She couldn’t wait until Marinette was back to her normal age. 

*

“Chloe, please don’t go. I can’t lose you again. Don’t go! You can’t go!” Marinette sobs into Chloe’s back. 

Chloe turns around. “I’m not going to leave. Just let me call into work and tell them that I can’t make it today.” 

“O- okay. But you can’t leave!”

If Chloe was correct in her assumptions, then Marinette and the rest of the Miraculous Team had just defeated Hawkmoth. That means that Chloe had gone into a coma, Adrien had gone to court, and Gabriel had gone to jail. 

“I’m not leaving you. I’m right here.” 

After making the call, Chloe leads both of them to the couch. “You’ll be alright, Mari, I swear. Things do get better.” 

“You promise?” Marinette asks after she’s cried herself out.

“I promise.” 

*

“Thank god. Reliving my life was a living nightmare.” 

Chloe sits up from her place on the couch. They had fallen asleep after crying. 

“Mari?” she asks blearily. Marinette hugs her then goes back to her phone. 

“Good morning to you too, babe.” 

“Mari! You’re back to normal!” Chloe grins wide. 

“Yeah. I’m back.” 

“Can I kiss you, then?” Marinette glances back at her.

“Nah.” 

Chloe pouts and Marinette takes pity on her. “Aw, love, don’t make that face.” 

“Kiss it better?” 

“Yeah, okay.”


End file.
